X-Ray search

How To: X-Ray LinkedIn for Profiles On
Google
By Kumar Vuppala – Anantha/TGC Limited – London UK
By Kumar Vuppala
TGC & ANANATHA - LONDON
Table of Contents
What’s the X-Ray Secret? .................................................................................................................... 1
Getting Started .................................................................................................................................... 2
Covering All The Bases ........................................................................................................................ 3
Putting It All Together ......................................................................................................................... 3
LINKEDIN RESULTS .............................................................................................................................. 4
Google Search Operators and More ....................................................................................................... 4
Is there is any tool ?? ......................................................................................................................... 8
Internet Sourcing Techniques ............................................................................................................... 10
How To: X-Ray LinkedIn For Profiles On
Google– Kumar Vuppala– Anantha/TGC
Limited– LondonUK
For many recruiters and sourcers, LinkedIn is at the top of the heap for places to find and
engage prospective candidates. One of the most popular methods to do this is by X-Raying
the site via search engines.
When X-Raying LinkedIn, we generally only want to target profiles, and for better or worse,
there are several ways we can accomplish this. The following will help you understand and
decide what works best for you as you search for LinkedIn profiles via Google.
First, we’ll start by telling Google that we only want to look at LinkedIn.com. This is
accomplished via the
What’s the X-Ray Secret?
There are two secrets to getting X-Ray LinkedIn searches to work. The first is to take
advantage of the public profiles that LinkedIn makes available to Google and other search
engines. The second trick is using some advanced features of Google Search, specifically
searching within a web site and URL. Note that users on LinkedIn have the option to have
their profile set to public or private. Not all users on LinkedIn have public profiles, but the
vast majority of users do have a public profile.
LinkedIn public profiles come in two different flavors – they either start with
www.linkedin.com/in/ or they start with www.linkedin.com/pub/. By using the SITE: and
INURL: operators along with the minus sign in your search, you can limit your Google
searches to only public LinkedIn profiles using the following phrase:
((site:www.linkedin.com AND (inurl:linkedin.com/pub/ OR inurl:linkedin.com/in/)) AND dir)
Note that this search includes several Boolean operators – the parentheses plus the AND , OR
and parentheses operators. It is also important to use the
-dir”
“ command because this
excludes any directory listings or URLs with “dir” in them. The end result is that the search
will only return results for individual profiles where either linkedin.com/pub or
linkedin.com/in are present in the URL.
You will need to understand some basic Boolean operators to use the X-Ray search. The most
important Boolean operators to know are:
Quotes – quotes signal that the phrase between the quotation marks must be in the
search results exactly as shown
AND – words or phrases on either side of AND must be in entry to be included in the
search results
OR – words or phrases on either side of the OR are included in the search results
Parentheses – just like algebra, the parentheses identify the order of operation as
anything between the parentheses are acted upon first
Getting Started
Here are the steps to issue an X-Ray search in Google:
1. Open up Google search – www.google.com
2. Copy the following command and paste it into the Google search box –
((site:www.linkedin.com AND (inurl:linkedin.com/pub/ OR inurl:linkedin.com/in/)) AND dir)
1. Add in any additional search phrases such as a job title, skill or geography – or all
three:
Title: i.e. “customer service” ,“(admin OR administrative)”, “business analyst”
Skill: i.e. “black belt”, “lotus notes”
Geography: i.e. “greater los angeles”, “Chicago”, “sacramento, california area”
Press enter, review your results and revise as necessary
Using the Boolean operators, you can string together multiple search phrases into a complete
search query. Note that Google Search does not care about capitalization – but it is a good
practice to capitalize your Boolean operators to make them easier to identify if you have to
troubleshoot your query. If you use Boolean in LinkedIn, you have to use all CAPS so it is
good to get in the habit of capitalizing your Boolean operators.
When issuing a long query in Google Search, you can only see about 60 characters, so
another tip is to write your query in the Notepad or Microsoft Word so you can easily see
your whole query and then copy it into Google search.
Covering All The Bases
A keen searcher also knows that there are many ways for people to input information into
LinkedIn. If you want a more complete list of results, you need to make sure that you include
all possible spellings in your query. For example, an administrative assistant could be listed
as admin, admin assistant, administrative assistant or admin asst. This is where the Boolean
operators are very helpful. To catch as many of the administrative assistant instances, you
could use the following search phrase to catch most of the ways that people could input their
role:
((admin OR administrative) AND (assistant OR asst))
Putting It All Together
Let’s use a specific search example to show you how X-Ray Search works. Our test query is
that we want to search for an administrative assistant in the Sacramento, California area who
has Lotus Notes experience. The X-Ray Search phrase would be as follows:
((site:www.linkedin.com AND (inurl:linkedin.com/pub/ OR inurl:linkedin.com/in/)) AND dir)
AND (admin OR ((admin OR administrative) AND (assistant OR asst)))
AND “Sacramento, California Area”
AND “lotus notes”
The query as listed above returns about 2,700 results. This compares to only 191 results
when I use LinkedIn Advanced Search to issue a similar query. In addition, many of the
LinkedIn results only provide a first name and last initial instead of a complete name.
GOOGLE RESULTS
LINKEDIN RESULTS
The primary difference is that the Google Search returns results from all of LinkedIn while
the LinkedIn search is limited 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree connections. Another big difference is
that the Google search returns results from anyone who ever had Sacramento (or surrounding
geography) in their profile even if they have moved away.
Just like LinkedIn, the Google search results provide some summary information from the
user’s LinkedIn profile that you can easily browse and a clickable link that takes you to their
LinkedIn public profile. Once in LinkedIn, you can then use your other super powers to reach
out and connect with them.
Becoming an X-Ray Search Expert will take some practice and you may have to experiment
or tweak your search query several times before you get the results you want. One tip is to
make sure you have a good starting point by copying and modifying one of the queries above.
However, the outcome of doing more targeted search primer should give you plenty of
ammunition to get started on leveraging LinkedIn to find those “needles in a haystack”atth
no one is seeing yet.
Google Search Operators and More
LinkedIn9
Twitter8
Facebook6
Google
Email
Search within a specific
site or domain
Use the site: operator to search for information within a specific
website or type of site (.org, .edu).
site:
[ site:linkedin.com ] or [ site:edu ]
Also search within specific sub-domains. [
site:www.linkedin.com or site:plus.google.com ]
Placeholder / Fill in the
blank
query * query
Use an asterisk (*) as a placeholder for any unknown or “wildcard”
terms. Results will vary depending on its use, how Google has
indexed the content of the page or what Google feels is relevant.
[ “senior * recruiter” ] will include results for [ senior
technical recruiter ]
[ “senior * * recruiter” ] will include results for [ senior
interactive marketing recruiter ]
Tip: It’s important to know that an asterisk (*) can include
results providing a single term, special character OR phrase
and you should experiment with it until you get the desired
results.
Search for a specific
term within the Title of a
website
intitle:
Search for terms within
the URL of a website
inurl:
Place intitle: immediately in front of your query to search for a
specific term or phrase within the Title of a website or page.
[ intitle:resume ] or [ intitle:“resume software engineer” ]
Tip: Use quotes when searching for specific phrases.
Search for a specific term or terms within the URL of a website.
[ inurl:resume ]
Tip: The query must be a complete or whole term, meaning
that you cannot extract a term from a string of consecutive
letters or numbers.
Using the above example, the following demonstrates what is
and is not possible when using the inurl: operator.
Yes: [ my-resume-123 ] or [ my/resume/123 ]
No: [ myresume123 ]
Search for pages with
links
Use the link: operator to search websites or pages that contain links
to another page or website.
link:
[ link:google.com ]
Tip: It’s common to use thesite: operator in conjunction with
the link: operator [ site:query link:query ]
Search by file type
filetype:
Use the filetype: operator to search for specific types of files, such
as PDFs, DOCs, or XLS
[ filetype:pdf ]
Tip: Because file type searches are generally obscure by
nature, it’s best practice to include multiple extensions.
Example: (filetype:doc | filetype:pdf | filetype:rtf | filetype:txt)
Find related websites
related:
Use the related: operator to find sites that have similar content by
typing related: immediately in front of a website URL.
[ related:jigsaw.com ]
Search a cached site or
page
Use the cache: operator to display a specific cached version of a
web page.
cache:
[ cache:linkedin.com ]
Search for an exact word
or phrase
Use quotes ( “” ) to search for an exact word or set of words in a
specific order.
“search query”
[ “ software engineer“ ]
Tip: Only use this if you’re looking for a very precise word or
phrase, because otherwise you could be excluding helpful
results by mistake.
Exclude a word or
phrase
Add a dash (-) immediately in front of a word to exclude all results
that include that word.
-query
[ -job -jobs ]
You can also exclude results based on other operators, like
excluding all results from a specific site.
[ developer -site:linkedin.com ]
Include similar words
with the Tilde
~query
At times, Google may replace some words in your original search
query with synonyms. To tell Google that you want synonyms
included, add a tilde sign (~) immediately in front of a word to
search for that word as well as synonyms.
[ software ~engineer ] will also include results for [ software
developer ]
Tip: Do not use quotes (“”) if you are wanting synonyms
returned in your search results.
Search for all words
query query
query AND query
To search for pages that need to have all words, include AND
(capitalized) or a space between the words. Google assumes AND
when there is simply a space between terms.
[ software engineer “seattle washington” ] or [ software AND
engineer AND “seattle washington” ]
Tip: In the examples above, Google will search for “software”
AND “engineer” AND “seattle washington”
Search for either word
query | query
query OR query
To search for pages that need to have only one of several words,
include OR (capitalized) or a pipe (|) between the words.
[ software engineer seattle | “san francisco”] or [ software
engineer seattle OR “san francisco”]
Tip: In the examples above, Google will search for “software”
AND “engineer”, but will search for either “seattle” OR “san
francisco”
Search for a number
range
Separate numbers by two periods (with no spaces) to see results
that contain numbers in a given range.
number..number
[ 50..300 connections]
Tip: Use only one number with the two periods to indicate an
upper maximum or a lower minimum.
[ “..500 employees” ]
site:www.linkedin.com
Now we can start targeting profiles.
Option 1: (inurl:com/pub | inurl:com/in) -inurl:pub/dir
LinkedIn uses two directories (pub and in) for public profiles. Because of this, we’ll need to
use the inurl elements (com/pub & com/in) to tell Google that we only want to see profiles
in our search results. Additionally, LinkedIn placed their “directory” listings (dir) in the
directory immediately following the (pub) directory so we have to tell Google to exclude that
with (-inurl:pub/dir) or we take the chance of getting results that are not profiles but actually
a page containing a list of them.
Tip: Precede the in and pub directories with (com/) and dir with (pub/) to prevent the
exclusion of these terms that may exist in other areas of the URL.
Option 2: “people you know”
“people you know” has become a popular alternative recently for targeting profiles because
the phrase “search for people you know” is primarily only found on public profiles (logged
out view). However the term “peopleyou know” is used in other context throughout
LinkedIn and not exclusive to profiles so it’s important that you have other elements in your
search string that target profile content. “people you know” is also effective where advanced
operators are not universal between search engines.
Tip: You must enclose the term (people you know) in quotes (“”) for it to be effective.
Option 3: (site:www.linkedin.com/pub | site:www.linkedin.com/in) -inurl:pub/dir
This is certainly the most specific way to target profiles but it’s unnecessary to use two (site)
operators when one will do.
It should be noted that X-Raying LinkedIn can be very effective, however, results appearing
in search engines are only “public” profiles. Meaning, LinkedIn lets users control what
information is viewable by the general public and search engines. Because of this, some
profiles will not be indexed for you to search which is why X-Raying should be considered
only one piece of your overall search strategy.
Is there is any tool ??
Yes It is
In this tool you can even save search so that you can come back .
http://uksourcers.co.uk/useful-tools/
Internet Sourcing Techniques
The search strings for each of these search engines will vary and therefore to maximize your search
please do read the tutorials in advance from the respective search engines site.
What techniques to use and when and under what circumstances to use will depend on how well
you master each techniques. To achieve optimum success one must also have a fairly good idea
about the recruitment industry, the specific job requirement, the key ords
w within the requirement
and also differentiate the "mandatory skills" from "good to have skills."
Some of the most common internet search techniques are as given below.
X-RAYING: A method of looking inside a specific web site to find what's there. Using this technique,
recruiters can find documents and web pages that aren't directly accessible via links on the main
public home page. When you 'x-ray' a website, you effectively get to examine every document that
resides there so long as they are not behind firewalls or password protected.Example: To find any
“software engineer” - could be a document/file or a word/phrase within a document that resides
within the website Oracle.com.In Altavista search - host:oracle.com AND software engineerIn Google
search - site:www.oracle.com AND software engineer
FLIPPING:
Flipping is an effective method used to find the relationships between web pages based on how
they are hyperlinked together. This search is especially useful for finding people who have links to
the company or have worked for a specific company.Example: To find any “software engineer” –
could be a document/file or word/phrase that links back to Oracle.com.In Altavista search link:oracle.com AND software engineerIn Google search - link:www.oracle.com AND software
engineer
PEELING BACK:
As the name suggest Peeling back is the process of “retracing the path” of the url especially when
one gets an Error 404 (File not found). This process is engage so as to locate the information
elsewhere on the site or locate the specific “root” folder where one can find similar or additional
data specific or related to the search.Example: By peeling back or keying backspace starting from the
point where the url ends we can then access the people link from the ce.uta.edu homepage and find
the names of all the faculty members.
url: http://www-ce.uta.edu/people/faculty/hoyos/research.html
HARVESTING OR MINING:
Harvesting involves reviewing a document, such as a resume or home page, and finding key words,
links, references and locations that assist with subsequent searches.
SEARCH STRINGS USING BOOLEAN KEYS
:
By constructing complex search strings and conducting the search in major search engines one can
hone in on the exact information/resources with great accuracy.
Some of the commonly used key words for a search string are given as
below.
Common resume Words:
Resume, Homepage, CV, Vitae, Bio, Qualifications, Objective,
Experience, Education, References,
"Work History", "Technical
skills", "Project duration"Common words to avoid: Submit, Opening,
Recruiter, Send, Benefits, Requirements, Opportunity, Apply, Job,
Jobs, Careers, Eoe, Reply, "my client".
Example on how to construct a complex search strings:R
equirement:
A project manager with PMI certification or a 6 Sigma black belt having atleast 5 years of project
management within an Investment bank in the areas of Equities connectivity or trading software
development. Must have good technical skills in J2EE, EJB, Websphere, XML and DB2.
the search engines mostly used by experience recruiters.
Some recommended search engines on the Web:
http://www.google.com/
http://www.live.com/
http://www.yahoo.com/
http://www.metacrawler.com/
http://www.atlavista.com/
http://www.dogpile.com/
Google:(intitle:cv OR inurl:cv OR intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) "project
manager" Java "investment bank" ("equities connectivity" OR trading software)
-inurl:efinancial *Search result: 87 pages
Yahoo:(intitle:cv OR inurl:cv OR intitle:resume OR i
nurl:resume) “project
manager” Java "investment bank" "equities connectivity" OR trading software
eoe -opening -post -preferred -reply -send – submitSearch result: 1,740 pages
-
Live Search:(intitle:cv inurl:cv intitle:resume inurl:resume) prefer:resume
“project manager” Java "investment bank" "equities connectivity" trading
software -job -jobs – careersSearch result: 10,038 pages
The search results from the above three searches gives us different amount of results and the task
of sieving through the hundreds of pages sounds rather a dauting task. However, the strings above
could still be further refined so as to achieve a much more specific results. For example by
including SCJP or Sun certification or SDLC, etc I believe one can derived at a much more accurate
results
How To Flip SearchThe use of Flip Searching or Flipping
is a technique to mine the Internet for potential candidates. A Flip Search is a simple search that can
be performed in some of the major search engines for example http://www.hotbot.com/ and
http://www.altavista.com/. The search simply finds people who link to a specific site. The uses are
endless. For example,
John is looking for ORACLE Programmers. This technique can be used to find the various sites that
are linked to oracle.com. In theory, John will find people who have on-line resumes with Oracle skills
because they may have linked to Oracle on their online resume.
So to do the search visit http://www.altavista.com/ and enter the following: "link: oracle.com" The
results once again will be all the sites that have linked to Oracle.com. Surf through the results and
you will find individuals resumes.
Boolean Operators Search engines can be considered as a cluttered resume database. Using detailed
searches with Boolean search operators can drill down and find the information you are looking for
faster. These operators are used to weed out irrelevant pages thereby narrowing your search results
to find exactly what you are looking for.
Each search engine is unique and we recommend to review the help section on each of the search
engines to determine what Boolean operators are supported.
Boolean Key
AND - The AND operator delivers results with the terms you requested. For example, searching
resume and oracle will return pages with both terms - resume and oracle.
OR - The OR operator delivers results with either of the terms you requested. For example, MCSE OR
M.C.S.E.
NOT - The NOT operator will not deliver certain words in your search results. For example, Java NOT
coffee will deliver closer results for JAVA Programmers and not Java Coffee.
NEAR - The NEAR operator locates words that are located in close proximity to other words. For
example, Java NEAR Programmer. Not every search engine supports this operator.
( ) Parentheses - The ( ) operator allows you to group terms and build longer search strings. For
example, NOT (submit AND employer) will avoid pages with both names.
* - The * operator is a wild card. Adding a wild card will find words contain the wild card. For
example program* will help so you do not have to run separate searches for words similar like:
programmer, programming, program
Example of Complex Search String
resume AND (java or JavaScript) AND program* AND (New York or NY or 212) AND NOT (coffee or
submit)
One warning about this Flip Search tactic:
Flip searching may pull up company directories, email lists, and other company related information.
In some rare cases, you may flip search yourself into a companies internal intranet. Flip Searching by
some has been view as negative and others as a brilliant strategy. My personal stance, anything
published on the Internet is public information for the world to view. Companies should be cautious
on what content appears on their site. As far as restricted areas and internal intranets, this is private
information and people accessing or hacking into these areas is blatantly unethical. Also, a word for
those who might be tempted... you leave an electronic footprint on every page and site you visit.Flip
Searching is a powerful tool that can uncover many hidden resumes and candidates. Performing the
searches on various search engines will give different results. Trying adding different companies and
skill sets to uncover different results